The obligation to wear face masks in public transport in Vienna is currently under discussion again and again. Thomas Czypionka of the Department of Health Economics and Health Policy at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna sees this as a sensible measure and criticizes “that Austria has learned nothing from the pandemic and has come out stronger”.
“It would have been better for all of us if we had learned that it makes sense to wear more masks in high-risk places in winter,” the health economist wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “Instead, politicians have even called for resistance to sensible measures, not least through mandatory vaccination, which will be to our detriment in the long run.”
Droplet transfer takes “just a second”
In the long thread, Czypionka explained his attitude to the obligation to wear masks: The higher the aerosol exposure, the shorter the contact time required, which means “I can also get infected in 5 minutes if 60 people produce aerosols in a tram” . Transmission via droplets takes only a second, because the larger droplets already contain the minimum infectious dose. That is important in public transport because the distance here is very small.”
Cluster analysis reaches its limits in public transport
Public transport would only not appear in cluster analyzes “because many people can remember the days they were in the office, but hardly anyone took the U1 from Taubstummengasse at 07:51. A cluster cannot be identified in this way,” said the expert.
Place with the greatest risk of infection
It has been argued “that people get infected elsewhere if not on public transport” – this position is often based on a misconception that arises in abstraction or modeling because the multitude of possibilities must be narrowed down: “It is not everyone goes to a restaurant 0.2 times a day and to a concert 0.05 times a day. There are plenty of people and especially vulnerable people for whom public transport is the only significant source of infection.
“The FFP2 mask works very well at Omikron!”
Anyone who says that “the mask doesn’t work with Omikron after all” is also wrong: “The FFP2 mask works especially well with Omikron!” says Czypionka. “That’s because the infection doesn’t go that deep. The higher up the airways, the bigger the aerosols and the easier it is to filter.” The greater infectivity of omicron is due to the higher number of viruses in these larger droplets.
Masks against other diseases even more effective
He also cannot accept the argument of low covid numbers and relatively low hospital utilisation: other flu-like diseases (ILIs) such as human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and increasingly flu are currently circulating en masse. “Masks are even more effective against this than against SARS-CoV-2,” says Czypionka.
In addition, “since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been no peace in the hospitals, and the staff also have the right to ensure that the population is attentive.” One should therefore not “always wait for the next supermeltdown before acting”. In this case, the worst case scenario was “Covid+Influenza+ILIs”. In some countries there is a mask obligation, in many countries masks are recommended and followed there.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
